Myanmar citizens head to early polls in Bangkok

A few dozen early voters in Myanmar’s widely criticised elections cast their ballots at the country’s embassy in Bangkok on Saturday as polls opened for citizens abroad.

Myanmar’s junta snatched power in a 2021 coup which plunged the country into a many-sided civil war, but it promises that phased polls — slated to begin in certain areas in late December — will move the country towards peace and democracy.

But its election commission on Saturday called off vote-holding in almost 1,600 village areas, a major cancellation of already-limited polls.

Meanwhile early voting abroad has begun at a few Myanmar embassies, including in Hong Kong, Singapore, Chiang Mai and Bangkok.

There was a heavy police presence on Saturday at the Bangkok embassy, where AFP journalists saw around 25 people sign up in the first two hours of polling.

Several voters declined to offer comment, but Moe Moe Lwin, 42, said she believed peace would follow the election.

“I came to vote as I want peace and I want to live with love and kindness,” she told AFP. “I want to see unity between Myanmar citizens.”

Construction worker and first-time voter Khun Kyaw Swe said he hoped to see educational and regional development after the election.

There are around half a million documented Myanmar nationals in the capital, according to Thailand’s labour ministry.

The International Organization for Migration estimates there are 4.1 million Myanmar nationals residing in Thailand, many of whom have fled the war and are undocumented.

Officials at the embassy told AFP they did not know how many people had filled the required voting registration form, which had an October 15 deadline.

Vote limited in scope

Deposed lawmakers excluded from the vote, human rights monitors and rebel groups opposing the junta have dismissed the election as a charade to disguise continuing military rule.

A Master’s student at Thailand’s Chulalongkorn University said Saturday he refused to take part in an election he described as a “fake showcase”.

The 29-year-old, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said there is “no hope” for an election held “while civilians are oppressed, displaced, and denied basic rights of citizens”.

“There will be a few individuals who may feel pressured or forced to vote,” he said, but the majority of Myanmar people living in Thailand “don’t accept” the election.

On Saturday, the junta-stacked Union Election Commission (UEC) announced that voting in 1,585 village areas had been called off.

The territories “have been deemed not conducive to holding free and fair elections”, it said in a statement published in Burmese-language newspapers.

In September, the junta said its long-promised election would not be held in about one in seven national parliament constituencies.

The military government introduced broad new legislation ahead of the polls, including clauses punishing protesting or criticising the election with up to a decade in prison.

There have been other signs that the poll will be limited in scope.

A census held last year in preparation for the election estimated it failed to collect data from 19 million of the country’s 51 million people, according to provisional findings.